The artillery of ideasENGLISH EDITIONFriday | October 14, 2011 | Nº 85 | Caracas

Venezuela backs Palestinian statehood

Human Rights applauded in VenezuelaVenezuela passed a United Nations Universal Periodic Exam on Human Rights with flying colors this week. The review took place at the headquarters of the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. The Venezuelan government was represented by a delegation led by Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, and gave a several hours-long, in-depth presentation on major human rights advances, setbacks and areas in development in the South American country. A majority of member nations lauded Venezuela’s clear steps towards improving human rights in country, while others, such as the US, used the opportunity to attack the Chavez government. | page 2

Politics

Thousands join grassroots coalitionThe Chavez reelection campaign 2012 is kicking off with strong, diverse support. | page 3

Integration

ALBA nations support SyriaA delegation from Latin America denounced US-led aggression against Syria. | page 5

Social Justice

New social services for senior citizensAs Western nations cut back social programs, Venezuela increases them. | page 6

Venezuela defeats legendary Argentina

Venezuela claimed a huge win over Argentina on

Tuesday night, beating the Al-biceleste 1-0, in the second soc-cer game of the CONMEBOL 2014 World Cup Qualifiers.

The Vinotinto’s, (Venezuela’s team), hero of the night was Fernando Amorebieta, who netted the lone goal of the game in the 61st minute of the match on a corner kick.

A lot of the blame for the le-gendary Argentine team’s loss has been placed on Argentine World Superstar Lionel Messi, but Venezuela was the superior team on Tuesday night, as they played harder and faster, and kept a constant attack throug-hout the match. They also disrupted a lot of Argentina’s attacks and attempts to score. If it weren’t for Argentina’s goalkeeper, Mariano Andu-jar, the Albiceleste might have been embarrassed by suffering defeat by a larger margin.

The Vinotinto have been ex-celling worldwide over the past several years as the Chavez ad-ministration has invested hea-vily in sports excellence.

page 7 | Culture Revolutionizing Venezuela’s film industry through greater inclusion and focus on new artists

page 8 | Opinion Protests in the US expand as the “roar of the people” is heard nationwide. Will change come?

Venezuela’s electoral system is solid and transparentPresident of Venezuela’s Na-

tional Electoral Council (CNE), Tibisay Lucena, spoke during a series of meetings in Washington this week about the improvements made to her country’s electoral system over the last ten years. Lucena indi-cated the CNE is a solid, trans-parent entity that guarantees the inclusion of all Venezuelans across the political spectrum. “The Electoral Power has defea-ted abstention and increased de-mocratic participation thanks to

mechanisms that today guaran-tee the political participation of all Venezuelans. Electoral parti-cipation has grown and the CNE has various control mechanisms to guarantee the transparency of all electoral processes”.

Regarding the advances made by the CNE, Lucena said that it has defeated corruption that exis-ted under previous governments and elevated inclusion due to the solidity of the system and factors such as increased voting stations. “While in the past there were only

7,000 voting stations, today we have 40,000. We are [in] communi-ties that never before had access to electoral participation. These advances have made our electoral system the safest in the region”, Lucena said. Last June, the Ve-nezuelan electoral system was certified as the best in the world in terms of compliance with de-mocratic norms and social equa-lity, according to a study by the Canada-based institution known as the Foundation for Democratic Advancement (FDA).

The meeting occurred as part of the Palestine Authority chief’s Latin America tour to garner su-pport for Palestinian statehood. While Venezuela had already formalized its support for the inde-pendence and sovereignty of a Palestinian nation during the United Nations General Assembly in September, President Hugo Chavez reiterated his nation’s unconditional support for a Palestinian state. Chavez and Abbas also agreed to develop cooperation accords for future exchange in the

areas of agriculture, healthcare, technology and communication. | Page 3

President Chavez met with his counterpart, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Caracas this week, where the two leaders forged ties and pledged to develop a bilateral agenda

The artillery of ideas| 2 | Impact No Friday, October 14, 2011

United Nations review: Venezuela excels in Human RightsT/ COIP/ Agencies

On Tuesday the Venezue-lan government welco-med the results of what

it called “an open and extensi-ve” human rights assessment carried out this week by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Speaking in Geneva, Switzerland, Venezuelan De-puty Foreign Minister Temir Porras said the Human Rights evaluation had “provided an opportunity to revise, deepen, and perfect those public poli-cies directed at protecting and promoting human rights in Ve-nezuela”.

The diplomat thanked the UN body for its review, saying he spoke on behalf of “the mi-llions of Venezuelans who, wal-king hand in hand with their government, continue to make Human Rights a tangible, con-crete, living reality”.

Porras’ comments came at the end of a lengthy UN re-view process known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a newly-implemented mechanism created to eva-luate the Human Rights situa-tions in all 193 UN Member States. As part of the process, each country presents a self-assessment, which is later thoroughly reviewed by fe-llow members of UN Human Rights Council.

In July 2011, Venezuela sub-mitted its report to the UN body, entitled “Human Rights for Good Living”. In it, the Ve-nezuelan government placed advances in Human Rights into the context of the Bolivarian Revolution, highlighting for example, the total eradication of illiteracy, dramatic reduc-tions in poverty rates, impor-tant increases in nutrition and food security, universal access to health care services and hig-her education.

During the 12th Session of the UPR Working Group, held in Geneva late last week, the UN body reviewed the Human Rights situation of 16 countries ranging from Ireland and Ice-land to Syria and Venezuela.

Understanding the importan-ce of the “open and extensive process”, in contrast to priva-te Human Rights assessments issued by non-government or-ganizations (NGOs) based in or funded by the United States and its allies, the Venezuelan government sent a high-ran-king delegation to Geneva that included Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Indigenous Affairs Minister Nicia Maldo-nado, and General Prosecutor Luisa Ortega.

After presenting their as-sessment of Human Rights in their country, the delegation participated in the critical re-view process coordinated by Guatemala, Burkina Faso, and the Czech Republic, the three countries selected to lead the assessment of Venezuela. Open to all Member States, the review resulted in a total 148 recom-mendations to be considered by the Venezuelan government.

POSITIVE & NEGATIVE RESULTSWhile most recommenda-

tions were favorable, including a suggestion by Nicaragua that “the revolutionary policies of the Venezuelan government be strengthened so that all Vene-zuelans can fully enjoy their

fundamental rights”, other countries such as the United States, France, and Israel cri-ticized what they said were limitations of “freedom of ex-pression” and a lack of “an in-dependent judiciary”.

In response to the overall as-sessment, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister affirmed that “po-sitive suggestions” would be taken back to his country for consideration by the executive, legislative, and judicial bran-ches of government, but that recommendations made “with an aggressive spirit and absolu-te cynicism” would be rejected as such.

Uruguay’s Laura Dupuy Las-serre, President of the UN Hu-man Rights Council, explained that the acceptance or rejection of specific recommendations “is a sovereign decision” of each Member State.

“The acceptance (of a recom-mendation) is a political com-mitment that each state assu-mes…Of course, follow through (by the government) is then expected so that the internatio-nal community can continue to provide vigilance” on each spe-cific issue, she explained.

Of the 148 recommendations made, Venezuela accepted 95,

rejected 38, and left 15 for fur-ther discussion in a follow-up session scheduled for March 2012.

According to the Deputy Fo-reign Minister, 75 of the 95 re-commendations accepted are already being implemented in the Bolivarian Republic.

“The government of Venezue-la is proud to report that 80% of the observations and recom-mendations made by brother and sister nations are already being carried out, meaning that we are advancing in the right direction and doing so by our own free will”, Porras said on Tuesday.

“Of course, there was no shor-tage of those who came here with unfounded, disrespectful, and interventionist affirma-tions, which they attempted to disguise as ‘recommendations’, comments that not only have nothing to do with Venezue-lan reality but lack a genuine interest in promoting Human Rights”.

“It doesn’t surprise us”, con-tinued Porras, “that said accu-sations come from the same old empires that have a very pecu-liar way of defending human rights – bombing countries and slaughtering innocent men and women, applying criminal eco-nomic blockades against people who struggle for independence, and financing political desta-bilization and terrorism in an attempt to impose their will on, and to take control of, the natu-ral resources of victim nations”.

The UN review process, Po-rras explained, helped to “rele-gate to the sidelines those who come here looking to impose their policy of double-speak and double-standards, mani-pulating the Human Rights discourse so as to continue stepping on those peoples who seek to live independently”.

The diplomat added that his country was the permanent victim of “unfounded criti-cisms” because is “defends the truth and does not, will not, remain silent when it comes to denouncing the blatant disre-gard for the people, to denoun-cing imperialism and war, and

to defending just causes across the world, peace and brother-hood among all nations”.

Commenting on the results of the Human Rights review, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the process had re-sulted in “a resounding victory for the truth, a resounding vic-tory for the Bolivarian Revo-lution and for the Venezuelan people”.

“We are very pleased with the results of this process”, said Chavez, because Venezue-la “is a country in which, some 13 years ago, we began a truly intense battle for the recupe-ration and defense of Human Rights”.

The Bolivarian Revolution came to power in 1998 after Chavez won the first of many electoral victories spearhea-ded by the Venezuelan people. A year later, a new constitution was written and approved by voters which incorporated a number of important interna-tionally-recognized elements of the struggle for Human Rights including social, economic, and cultural inclusion.

OPPOSITION INTENTIONSWhile opposition media out-

lets and anti-Chavez politi-cians celebrated the critiques made by the US and its allies, Venezuela’s top Human Rights official questioned the use of the debates to discredit on-going attempts to democratize Venezuelan society.

“The objective of this (UPE) process is to provide the Ve-nezuelan people a trustworthy assessment of the true status of Human Rights in the coun-try, free of political bias and proselytizing”, explained Vene-zuelan Human Rights Ombuds-man Gabriela Ramirez.

Responding to opposition claims of “international con-demnation”, Ramirez explai-ned that, “Human Rights must be understood in their concrete form and within the context that they are exercised”.

“Regrettably for our coun-try”, she concluded, “the Hu-man Rights discourse has been tremendously politicized and become a bastion from which certain political sectors (of the opposition) discredit the country’s democratic insti-tutions, perverting the real essence of Human Rights and causing a great deal of harm to the Venezuelan people”.

No Friday, October 14, 2011 Politics | 3 |The artillery of ideas

Venezuela supports Palestine statehood; Chavez & Abbas met in CaracasT/ COIP/ Agencies

In his continuing global odys-sey for garnering larger su-pport for the initiative of se-

curing Palestinian statehood and membership in the United Nations, President Mahmoud Abbas succeeded Tuesday in getting Venezuela on board. Ve-nezuela, a fast growing economy, is an oil giant with tremendous diplomatic clout. President Hugo Chavez extended his country’s full support to the Palestine UN membership bid during a Cara-cas meeting with visiting Presi-dent Abbas. At present Palestine enjoys UN observer status.

Venezuela’s jittery neighbor, Colombia declared last week its intention to vote against Pa-lestinian statehood in the UN Security Council. Colombia’s right-wing government, led by

President Juan Manuel Santos, is a close ally and dependent of the United States.

During remarks to the press after Tuesday’s meeting at Mi-

raflores presidential palace in Caracas, Chavez assured that “all Venezuelan people were united in not just supporting the Palestinian cause at the United

Nations, but their struggle to re-claim historic Palestine”. In re-turn, President Abbas thanked the Venezuelan leadership for supporting Palestine and its people.

The Venezuelan President also expressed his hope to “visit Palestine soon and meet with President Abbas”.

The two leaders spoke of coo-peration accords between both nations once Palestinian state-hood is formalized. “We have agreed to create a commission to review the new horizons of coo-peration in all possible areas”, said Chavez. “They have lands fit for agriculture, but lack te-chnology and resources for pro-duction”, he added.

Currently, 37 Palestinians stu-dy at the Latin American School of Medicine in Venezuela.

On September 29, 2011, Presi-dent Abbas formally presented

the Palestinian statehood dos-sier to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Currently the fifteen members of the Security Coun-cil are deliberating over the decision. Already at least nine members have shown their su-pport for Palestine, despite reta-liatory US veto threat.

The Security Council consists of five permanent members: China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and the US, and ten non-permanent members Bos-nia, Brazil, Colombia, Gabon, Germany, India, Lebanon, Ni-geria, Portugal and South Afri-ca. China, Russia, India, Gabon, Lebanon, Nigeria, South Afri-ca, Bosnia, Portugal are repor-ted to have already decided to vote in favor of Palestine in the forthcoming Security Council meeting.

The world community, fea-ring a daily rise in number of arrogant global conflicts, view the current phase of the Middle East situation as quite ripe for fi-nal settlement with a two-State solution: Palestine and Israel. But US threat to veto the possibi-lity of Palestine statehood could prevent this from happening.

Thousands of organizations join pro-Chavez grassroots campaign coalitionT/ COIP/ Presidential Press

In a massive sign of popular support, Venezuelan Presi-

dent Hugo Chavez announced last Monday the enrollment of more than 4,000 grassroots social movements, organiza-tions and activists throughout the national territory into a new progressive coalition for-med to prepare the grounds for next year’s presidential elections.

The Great Patriotic Pole, formally launched last Fri-day, is open to any and all organizations that wish to su-pport the current President and assist in consolidating the country’s progressive and democratic revolution led by Chavez.

Although it is widely unders-tood that the 7 million-strong United Socialist Party of Vene-zuela (PSUV) will play a key leadership role in the new coali-

tion, participation in the umbre-lla organization does not depend on party membership.

“I see the Great Patriotic Pole as a network of networks whe-re social movements maintain complete freedom and their own internal methods as well as their own identity, but they also have the consciousness to link

themselves to the great network of movements that transcends the local”, Chavez said.

Referring to the registry ca-rried out in the capital of Ca-racas and the central states of Miranda and Vargas as a “flood of people’s power”, the head of state gave the official count of affiliated members.

“I was looking over the num-bers and we have 4,158 organiza-tions enlisted”, he informed.

While the Great Patriotic Pole will play a major role in organizing support for Presi-dent Chavez’s re-election bid in 2012, it is also envisioned as a forum to stimulate debate, criticism and reflection with respect to Venezuela’s revolu-tionary process.

According to Lorena Freites, youth activist from the cultural group Tiuna El Fuerte in Cara-cas, the coalition represents “a space where the Revolution can discuss itself”.

“New spaces are being opened in order to diversify participa-tion… It’s giving space to youth and people who felt there was no place for them. It has authentic potential because it’s arising from critical revision”, Freites said during an interview earlier this week. The activist also pla-ced emphasis on how the Great Patriotic Pole has the capability

of bringing a new participatory and revolutionary ethic to the everyday lives of residents.

“The false division between the social and the political, the ideological and the day-to-day is being transcended. By begin-ning to understand that there is no such division and that po-litics transcends everything – this is going to open the possibi-lity that many more people feel engaged”, she asserted.

Thus far, the coalition has been joined by a wide diversity of activist groups and social mo-vements including student, wo-men, LGBT, indigenous, farmer and worker organizations.

In terms of political parties the Patriotic Pole has received, in addition to the backing of the PSUV, the support of both the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) and a division of Patria Para Todos (PPT).

“This is part of the process that needs to continue to matu-re, a process that will continue to develop through debate and discussions with different sec-tors, social organizations, poli-tical parties and individuals so that we can advance in the con-solidation of the Revolution”, said PCV leader Yul Jabour.

The artillery of ideas| 4 | Politics No Friday, October 14, 2011

T/ Rachael Boothroydwww.venezuelanalysis.com

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced Sunday

that “illegal houses” on the archipelago Los Roques would be expropriated and converted into low-cost hotels for poorer Venezuelans.

The cluster of islands is fa-mous for being the playground of Venezuela’s rich elite and international tourists, who of-ten vacation on the Caribbean islands. Despite the fact that the group of islands was decla-red a protected area in 1972, numerous vacation homes and private buildings have been constructed there, particularly

Venezuela to turn “illegal” vacation homes into affordable hotels on Los Roques

in el Cayo Madrisqui, where Chavez claims various houses were illegally built.

“The upper-class bourgeoi-sie illegally privatized all of Los Roques and that’s what we are going to expropriate”, he

said, adding that yachts expro-priated from fugitive bankers would also be used for sight-seeing tours in the area.

In August the President used the special decree authority granted to him by the Vene-

zuelan National Assembly to create the Insular Territory of Miranda. The recently founded territory includes Los Roques, La Orchila and the Archipelago Las Aves, some of Venezuela’s prime Caribbean islands.

“Some people believe that those are autonomous territo-ries. Wealthy sectors and the oligarchy do not event think that they belong to Venezuela”, said Chavez at the time.

On Wednesday, the President appointed Vice-Admiral Ar-mando Laguna Laguna as head of the newly-established terri-tory. Laguna will oversee the implementation of government projects on the islands, which the government hopes will be-gin straight away.

RESIDENTS INVOLVEDA popular consultation pro-

cess with the islands’ inhabi-tants began last week through a governmental commission,

which was sent to consult citi-zens regarding the needs of Los Roques’ population and to or-ganize a debate of the country’s popular power laws.

United Socialist Party of Ve-nezuela (PSUV) representative and member of the commis-sion, Odalys Monzon, related that one of the primary con-cerns expressed by inhabitants of Los Roques was the absence of a health clinic.

“We spoke with the President of Social Security, Carlos Ro-tondaro, and construction of an outpatient’s department is already underway here”, said the representative.

As well as low cost hotels for ordinary Venezuelans, Chavez also stated that a fishing center would be built on the islands and confirmed that the move was a result of years of study, carried out by governmental political and geo-political re-search teams.

T/ COI

Last Tuesday, a delegation of city councilors from the United Socialist Party of Ve-

nezuela departed for a two-week visit with the City Council of Marinaleda, Spain, to exchange ideas about promoting inclusive democracy and economic equali-ty at the local level.

The councilors from the Li-bertador Municipality in Meri-da, Venezuela received a special invitation from Mayor Juan Ma-nuel Sanchez Gordillo, whose administration has established collectively owned property and humanist social programs in the largely rural municipality of Marinaleda.

In a joint statement, the Vene-zuelan city councilors said they would attend “a series of wor-king meetings to exchange ideas within the framework of com-plementarity, respect, collabo-ration, and multi-polar relations between both municipalities”.

The statement referred to Gor-dillo as “a revolutionary mayor who shares in the Bolivarian Project” and who “has totally

Venezuelan city councilors Visit socialist municipality in Spain

combated unemployment and insecurity, and provided solid waste management and other services with a socialist revolu-tionary program, which has im-proved the quality of life”.

The group of Venezuelan offi-cials hopes to “show the advan-ces of the Bolivarian revolution and break through the media blockade that exists against the Venezuelan revolutionary pro-cess, in particular within the European Union”, according to Cesar Angulo, the president of the Commission of Inter-Insti-

tutional Relations of Libertador City Council.

“The people of Marinaleda will learn about Venezuela’s transformation from a neolibe-ral model to a society based on communal power, through the public policies of the Bolivarian Revolution”, Angulo said in an interview with COI.

Councilor Luz Mayeli Molina, who is also part of the PSUV de-legation to Marinaleda, said she hoped to learn from Gordillo’s 30-year experience as mayor in order to improve the performan-

ce of the PSUV in local govern-ment. “We recognize that our municipality in this moment has certain difficulties mostly in pro-viding services to our communi-ties, and we want to learn about their experience [in Marinaleda] and bring these experiences not only to Libertador Municipality but also to many municipalities around the state and even the country”, said Molina.

The councilor added that among her objectives is to “to be able to convert the state that we have into the true socialist state led by President Chavez”.

Each Venezuelan councilor is expected to make a presenta-tion about a major aspect of the PSUV’s political strategy in Me-rida, including its policy toward healthcare, education, agricul-tural development through a community-led process known as endogenous development, and other public policies that receive limited exposure in the international media.

The two groups of city counci-lors also plan to discuss the im-pact of the international econo-mic crisis, and their responses to

the crisis. “We know that a large part of Spain, like in other coun-tries, has been severely affected by this crisis, and we want to know what was Marinaleda’s experience compared to ours,” Molina commented.

Angulo said the Venezuelan delegation would “be in solidari-ty with the movement of outra-ged people who have been tram-pled by the neoliberal measures of the government of [Spanish President Jose Luis] Rodríguez Zapatero”.

SOCIALIST SPAINMayor Gordillo was first elec-

ted in 1979 on the Workers’ Unity Collective platform, which won an absolute majority of seats on the Marinaleda City Coun-cil. He has been continuously re-elected by the municipality’s 2,600 residents, and is now ser-ving his ninth term as mayor.

Over the past 32 years, the Ma-rinaleda City Council has pro-moted full employment policies, expanded social benefits for the poor, and undertaken radical reforms often through land oc-cupations. Gordillo’s adminis-tration also changed the names of city streets from the names of Franco-era military generals the names of Latin American so-cialists such as the Cuba’s Anto-nio Maceo and Chile’s Salvador Allende. Marinaleda’s official flag bears the slogan: “In Utopia Toward Peace”.

No Friday, October 14, 2011 Integration | 5 |The artillery of ideas

Latin American Nations Express Support for Syria, Oppose Foreign AttacksT/ COIP/ Agencies

Over the weekend Venezue-lan Foreign Minister Nico-las Maduro and his colle-

agues from within the Political Council of the Bolivarian Alter-native for the Peoples of the Ame-ricas (ALBA) met in Damascus to denounce ongoing violence in Syria aimed at toppling the go-vernment of President Bashar Al-Assad. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the Latin American delegation said it was in Syria to prevent “another Libya” and called for an end to “all forms of interventionism” by the US and its allies.

“Aren’t the existing aggres-sions against the Arab people enough; the slaughtering of the Iraqi people, the bombardment of the Libyan people? How is all this justified?” asked Maduro.

Speaking on behalf of the ALBA delegates, the Venezue-lan diplomat said the regional alliance “will continue to reject all forms of interventionism by the (US) Empire which seek to apply the same format used in Libya to incite a process of vio-lent regime change” in Syria and other countries that oppose US foreign policy.

ALBA, a social, economic, political and cultural initia-tive spearheaded by Venezue-lan President Hugo Chavez, currently includes member states Antigua and Barbu-da, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela.

With respect to the Middle East, Maduro explained, “ALBA is a proposal based on solida-rity; a solidarity that includes defending the sovereignty and dignity of both the people and government of Syria”.

Venezuela’s Foreign Minister was joined in Damascus by his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Ro-driguez, Nicaraguan Ambassa-dor to the United Nations Maria Rubiales, Ecuadorian Vice Mi-nister for North American and Europe Pablo Villagomez, and Bolivian Minister of Communi-cations Ivan Canelas.

The Cuban Foreign Minister told reporters that his country stood with ALBA in its support for the Syrian people’s “right to self-determination, without any foreign intervention or interfe-rence at all”.

Nicaragua’s Rubiales added, “to defend Syria is to defend all our peoples against imperialist aggression” because, she ar-gued, “an attack on Syria is an attack on all of ALBA, against all the people of the South”.

ALBA CONCERNS“We have no doubt whatsoever

that the US and western powers want to take advantage of the in-ternal problems Syria has so as to conspire against, damage and destroy” the Al-Assad govern-ment, affirmed Maduro.

“It remains for the people of Syria to decide, with their great capacity for patriotism, if they will allow this to happen or not. And it’s up to international pu-blic opinion to decide if we will allow a crime to be committed against the people of Syria”, he said.

In an open letter to the United Nations read at the UN General Assembly last month, Vene-zuelan President Hugo Chavez questioned the international community’s role in toppling Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and new attempts aimed at Syria’s Assad:

“It is intolerable that the powerful of this world intend to

claim for themselves the right to order legitimate and sove-reign governments’ rulers to step down. This was the case in Libya, and they want to do the same in Syria. Such are the existing asymmetries in the in-ternational setting and such are the abuses against the weakest nations…”

“It is not for us to bring forward a conclusive judgment about the national situation in Syria; first, because of the in-herent complexity of any natio-nal reality and, second, becau-se only the Syrian people can solve their problems and decide their fate in light of the people’s right to self-determination, which is an inalienable right in all respects”.

In recent weeks, US President Barack Obama and his British, German, and French counter-parts have all openly called for an end to the Al-Assad govern-ment. The US and Europe also imposed unilateral sanctions against Syria, failing to pass a UN resolution as Russia and China opposed such a move for fear that a Libya-style interven-tion would later occur.

In an official statement, Oba-ma said the United States had done everything possible to have Syria’s Al-Assad “lead a democratic transition or get out of the way”.

“He has not led (such a transi-tion). For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for

President Assad to step aside”, Obama affirmed.

REFORMS A “SOVEREIGN DECISION”Syrian President Bashar Al-

Assad, who thanked the ALBA delegation for their solidarity on Sunday, contextualized the widespread political violence suffered across the country sin-ce protests for political reform began earlier this year.

“Foreign attacks against Syria intensified as soon as the inter-nal situation began to improve, confirming that it isn’t reform that they (outside forces) want, but instead, that Syria pay the price for maintaining political positions that go against foreign plans for the region”.

The “process of reform un-derway”, explained Al-Assad, “will be implemented, and is be-ing implemented, based on the sovereign decision to do so, inde-pendent of any external dictates coming from abroad”.

The Syrian government has of-ten differed from US, European, and Israeli policies with respect to Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran, among others. Domestica-lly, the Al-Assad government is backed by the ruling Ba’ath Par-ty, a political party founded on Arab nationalist and socialist doctrines that defends, among other things, the right to self-determination.

Demonstrations for political reforms in the country first be-gan in January, with numerous

mass demonstrations in Damas-cus and other large cities. These protests were largely peaceful until, on March 15, 2011, clashes between state security forces and unidentified gunmen left dozens of people dead or woun-ded. Since then, there have been hundreds of civilian and mili-tary casualties.

International human rights organizations and mainstream media outlets, including many of the same that exaggerated data in the build-up to war in Libya, accuse the Syrian government of outright repression, including “crimes against humanity”.

The Syrian government, howe-ver, reports that 1,400 people have been killed to date, half of which are members of the police or armed forces. International agencies such as the UN Human Rights Council place the num-ber of dead at or above 2,400.

Ending his comments in Da-mascus, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister explained that whi-le ALBA fully supports those “efforts aimed at addressing the internal affairs of this beautiful nation in a peaceful and political way”, it rejects “the manipula-tion and lies in the mainstream media that attempt to impose a situation of civil war and conti-nuous violence on Syria”.

In an article published by the New York Times last month, wri-ter Helene Cooper reported that widespread unrest in Syria had led US State Department offi-cials to begin “pressing Syria’s opposition leaders to unite as they work to bring down the As-sad government”.

“While other countries have withdrawn their ambassadors from Damascus, Obama admi-nistration officials say they are leaving in place the American ambassador, Robert S. Ford, des-pite the risks, so he can main-tain contact with opposition leaders and the leaders of the country’s myriad sects and reli-gious groups”, Cooper wrote.

Just this week, anti-gover-nment forces in Syria formed what they called the ‘Syrian National Council’ (SNC), loo-king for international su-pport and recognition as the future replacement of the Al-Assad government. Libya’s National Transition Council (TNC), backed by NATO in the overthrow the Gaddafi government, was the first to recognize the SNC as Syria’s “legitimate government”.

The artillery of ideas

T/ COIP/ Agencies

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced last week the creation of a new

social program designed to be-nefit some of the country’s most vulnerable residents.

During a phone call to the radio station YVKE Mundial, Chavez explained that the new program, or mission, will boost pension and welfare assistance to seniors throughout the nation who find themselves in a situa-tion of need.

“We need to consolidate the different programs, institu-tions, and the participation of seniors and revolutionary or-

Venezuela celebrates Indigenous Resistance Day; boosts social programs to protect people of native descent

Venezuela: new policies to benefit senior citizens

ganizations. This is a mission that will attend to all the cases”, the head of state explained. The vast majority of seniors in Vene-zuela receive a pension from the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security (IVSS) in accordance with their salaries as members of the nation’s work force.

For women, pensions become available at 55 years of age whi-le men are eligible at the age of

60. Apart from pensions, some 200,000 seniors receive bene-fits through Venezuela’s Natio-nal Institute of Social Services (INASS) which provides assis-tance for traditionally margi-nalized sectors including single mothers, indigenous groups, and the disabled.

The amount of the monthly INASS benefits range from 60 to 80 percent of the minimum

wage, currently at 1,548 bolivars ($360).

Chavez informed on Monday that a major goal of the new mission will be to find those seniors who are not enrolled in either program to ensure that they receive their necessary benefits.

“There are many elderly people who are not enrolled in either the IVSS or the INASS, living in a situation of poverty without a pension. They never paid into the system or the com-panies they worked for, inclu-ding the state, exploited them and never followed the law…they didn’t pay the insurance and the people don’t appear re-gistered”, he said.

The head of state made clear during the broadcast his desire to see the number of adults recei-ving assistance from the INASS to be gradually increased until those beneficiaries are equiva-lent to the number receiving pensions through the IVSS.

“I have the firm intention of progressively equaling the be-

nefits from the IVSS and the INASS. But this is an issue that needs to be worked on with ba-lance and sustainability”, the socialist leader said.

MORE ECONOMIC BENEFITSIn a further strengthening

of economic benefits for the el-derly, Chavez also announced last week the approval of just under 9 billion bolivars ($2 bi-llion) for various Christmas Bo-nuses, known in Venezuela as “aguinaldos”, which provide up to an additional two months of salary for recipients.

“There is almost no country in the world that has the kind of policies that we have in Vene-zuela”, the President said.

According to Mauro Gonzalez, host of the YVKE’s radio pro-gram, the current Venezuelan government is doing more now for seniors than ever before.

“In earlier times, [the state] only gave 10 percent of the mi-nimum wage. Now the IVSS isn’t only giving pensions, but they’re providing health care, rehabilitation, medicine and other services”, he said.

In addition to announcing the new social program, Chavez also touched on the need to streng-then the “ideological battle” and spoke of the need to amplify the range of YVKE radio which, in addition to appearing on line, has five stations throughout the national territory.

T/ COIP/ Agencies

Venezuela’s Justice Ministry Vice-Minister of Interior Po-

licy, Edwin Rojas, emphasized Wednesday that Venezuela has implemented numerous social policies which recognize, pro-tect and respect the culture, traditions and dialects of all native peoples of the country, rights enshrined in the Vene-zuelan Constitution ratified in 1999.

During the activities comme-morated on Wednesday, the Day of Indigenous Resistance (pre-

viously Columbus Day), Rojas listed some of the social policies most recently enacted, inclu-ding the creation of a ministry of indigenous people, identity cards which respect the original name of people of native descent, social missions and programs in the areas of healthcare and edu-cation, the Plan Yukpa which is aimed at land demarcation of these native communities, and many others.

“Previously, we were told that this day, October 12, was the date when we were discove-red. Cristobal Colon (Christo-pher Columbus) was portrayed

as a good friend of the indige-nous people and the conque-rors were people who came to do us good. The Venezuelan Government under President Hugo Chavez has fostered the awakening of people and indi-genous people’s awareness of our true history”. Vice-Minis-ter Rojas highlighted the role played by Indigenous Peoples Minister Nicia Maldonado in Geneva last week, where Ve-nezuela submitted the Univer-sal Periodic Review report on human rights and particularly stood out for its social, poli-tical, health and educational

advances achieved in native people’s communities.

October 12th has been rena-med as the Day of Indigenous Resistance in Venezuela since 2002, through a presidential de-cree by Hugo Chavez, in order to recognize the struggle of the na-tive people against the foreign conquerors. Also during the activities on Wednesday, Vice

President Elias Jaua oversaw an event issuing land titles to indigenous families and com-munities in the western state of Zulia. Hundreds of native fami-lies received title to their own lands and homes built with pu-blic funds. The event was repea-ted in several other indigenous communities throughout the nation.

| 6 | Social Justice No Friday, October 14, 2011

As the United States and western European nations are cutting social programs and pensions for the elderly, Venezuela’s President Chavez is increasing them

No Friday, October 14, 2011 Culture | 7 |The artillery of ideas

Revolutionizing cinema in Venezuela: an interview with Victor LuckertT/ COIP/ EE

Filmmakers from all over Latin America converged on the Caribbean island

of Margarita last Thursday to mark the inauguration of the 4th edition of Venezuela’s most important cinematic event.

The Latin American and Ca-ribbean Film Festival of Mar-garita, an initiative of the Vene-zuelan government, has grown steadily over its young existence and is now considered by many in the industry to occupy a pri-vileged place among some of the most notable competitions in the region.

This year’s festival has inclu-ded the participation of fiction and documentary filmmakers from Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Panama, Brazil as well as na-tional productions that address a range of social, political and cultural issues.

Focusing on the promotion of new talent, the competition has made a special effort to in-corporate community projects into its program, providing opportunities for otherwise excluded sectors of the popula-tion to learn the art of cinema and democratize what has tra-ditionally been an audio-visual landscape dominated by fo-reign producers.

Correo del Orinoco Internatio-nal had the chance to conver-se with the coordinator of the event, Victor Luckert, during the festival’s proceedings in the city of Porlamar where the orga-nizer elaborated on the state of cinema in Latin America and the festival’s commitment to community engagement.

COI: How did the idea of this festival arise?

Luckert: The festival was born as part of the policies of the Ministry of Culture to support our cinematography. Filmmakers were never recog-nized by the state, so in 2008 we decided to create the first festival which, in that year, only included national produc-tions. After the completion of

the first festival, those working in cinema at the state level met and we decided that in agree-ment with the state’s policies of Latin American integration we should amplify the festival and give it an international character. We also wanted to give the festival a special niche because there already exist a lot of international festivals in our region. It’s from there that the idea to make the event fo-cused on Operas Primas [First Works] arose, believing that this would be useful because it maintains the idea of integra-tion as well as permitting su-pport for new talent, which has been a priority of the Ministry for Culture. That’s why the fes-tival is always centered on new artists.

COI: Is this the only festival that contains a category for

Opera Prima in documenta-ries?

Luckert: In principle, it’s the only one in Latin America. His-torically, the Opera Primas have only existed for fiction.

COI: What influence has Hollywood had on Latin Ame-rican cinema and what is the perspective of this festival in that respect?

Luckert: In the 1960s and 1970s, film festivals used to be spaces for reflection and debate. They were political spaces that exhibited films that couldn’t be seen in other places. They were spaces for proposals, policies and actions that used to arise preci-sely to counteract the influence of Hollywood in our cinema. Hollywood has been powerful in the sense that it’s the owner of almost all the exhibition spaces, even if it is not the legal proprie-

tor of those spaces. The cinemas may be owned by Venezuelans or Mexicans, etc, but what they show is from Hollywood. They have become the de facto owners of these screens. So, we’ve created the festival in Margarita to re-new once again a space for re-flection and debate. In fact, during this edi-tion of the fes-tival, we had a mock forum to ask per-mission from Mr. Danger to screen our own films.

COI: And to whom are you referring when you say Mr. Danger?

Luckert: We’re referring to the United States, to Hollywood, to Obama, to the empire. It’s the empire that has dominated the screens. That’s why we gave the forum a provocative name – on the one hand to stimulate the debate but on the other hand to make a statement about reality. We in Latin America errone-ously speak about having quo-tas of national production in the cinemas but its like asking permission to enter our own homes. If the screens are here, they belong to the nation and we don’t need to ask for quotas from Hollywood to show our films. It should be the other way around.

COI: How are the policies of the Venezuelan government changing this situation?

Luckert: We’re co-signers of international agreements where cultural diversity is guaranteed, for example with UNESCO. We need to use this to combat the counter-culture that has inva-ded us, not only from the point of view of film but in general. Now, when talking about the specific case of President Cha-vez in Venezuela, we’ve never had so much support from any

other government. And I’m not just talking about film but all audio-visual production. We have some extraordinary laws. Even if we have some problems

that we still need to deal with in terms of distri-bution, we’ve had some important a d v a n c e s … a n d not only from the point of view of fi-nancing but also in the creation of the national distributor Amazonia Films and the production company Villa del Cine. We had years in the 1980s and 1990s when there was only 1 national film made each year. This has completely changed.

Since 2005, there has been con-siderable growth in cinematic productions. Now we’re produ-cing between 15 and 20 feature-length films a year and an infi-nite number of shorts and script projects.

COI: Explain a little about the commitment that the fes-tival has with the community.

Luckert: The festival has had a strong commitment with the community in many ways. We’ve created the competition for Com-munity Video and Film. This competition is fabulous because it gives the opportunity to com-munities to express their realities through audio-visual projects without limitations... But it’s not only the Community Video and Film competition that is planting the seeds of audio-visual produc-tion in the country. There are so many aspiring talents and for this reason our festival goes into the communities. We don’t have just two or three exhibit spa-ces. We have spaces distributed throughout the island of Marga-rita. We’re taking cinema to the people’s houses, we’re in the pri-sons, and we’re making the festi-val more and more national every year by screening the winners of the public vote award in public cinemas across the country.

A publication of the Fundacion Correo del Orinoco Eva Golinger Alexander Uzcátegui, Jameson Jiménez Fundación Imprenta de la Cultura

The artillery of ideasENGLISH EDITION Friday | October 14, 2011 | Nº 85 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

The roar of the PeopleInside the barricading bubbles

surrounding the Wall Street plutocrats and the Washington

oligarchs who service them, there must be worry. After three years of disclosed “lying, cheating and stealing” as one prosecutor put it, with nary a visible stir from the masses, suddenly the barricades are beginning to quiver.

Could this “Occupy Wall Street” challenge in New York City that is spreading to hun-dreds of communities from Prescott, Arizona to Hartford, Connecticut, be the real thing they have dreaded? Could this be the revolt of the multitudes, the “reserve army of the unem-ployed?”

It is remarkable what a little more than 100,000 Americans, showing up and staying awhile have done in three weeks.

They’re rattling the corpora-te supremacists. They have be-come a mass media story with columnists, editorials and car-toonists grinding out the ever increasing commentary.

There is fascination and cu-riosity about people who call themselves “The 99 percent!” People are organizing their litt-le societies and 24/7 necessities – food, first aid, shelter, legal ad-vice, music, posters – all without leaders.

The demonstrators are delibe-rately nonviolent but are angry over deep inequities and entren-ched greed and power that are impoverishing and harming millions in need, including hun-gry children and those without health care. The protesters are keeping the pundits and pon-tificators guessing about their “real agenda”.

Perfect, so far! Keep expan-ding the numbers of Ameri-cans who show up all over, who stay, who discover each other’s talents and the emerging power of the powerless. Go to 300,000, then 800,000, then 2 million and onward. There are 25 million in the US who want work but cannot get it to pay their rent, their debts, their mortgages and their multiplying student loans. While big corporate profits, bosses’ bonuses and

tax loopholes for the wealthy proliferate. Sparked by an ur-ging from the culture-jamming ADBUSTERS magazine from Vancouver, Canada in July, the Occupy Wall Street effort gets more remarkable by the day. It carries the moral outrage and the moral authority of the vast majority of people in the US who are excluded, disrespec-ted, defrauded, unrepresented, underpaid and unemployed. The American Dream has tur-ned into a nightmare. They are taught to trust as school chil-dren the very public and busi-ness institutions that have be-trayed them, looted or drained their pensions, their tax dollars and their common properties.

Those protesters at the re-named Liberty Park in New York are going into the nearby stores, with other consumers, and paying nearly 9 percent sales tax on their purchases. While the Wall Streeters are buying trillions of derivatives

and stocks without paying a penny in sales tax. Taxing Wall Street speculators could produ-ce hundreds of billions of over-due dollars a year from just a ½ percent sales tax on financial speculation.

The Wall Street “occupiers” and their offspring have good picks for their demonstrations. In Washington, DC they chose the insidious corporatists at the Chamber of Commerce buil-ding opposite the White House. They went before the building that houses part of the military-industrial complex devouring our public budget that President Eisenhower warned us about in his remarkable farewell address in January 1961.

It will be only a short time before these resisters point to these multinational corpora-tions’ abandonment of the US by shipping jobs and indus-tries to regimes abroad that repress their 80 cents per hour workers. Reporters write with

some surprise about this new human energy. Look at all the bystanders in suits or uniforms nodding in support at the pos-ters, the signs and the chants. Washington Post columnist, Patula Dvorak was astonished and observed:

“Every Washingtonian I ta-lked to who stepped out to watch the action in Freedom Plaza – from the security guards to the suits – felt a solidarity with the message”.

“The banks. The banks are taking all of us for a ride”, one security guard told me. “And they’re in the right place now, because Congress is behind that”.

Though the Occupy surge is going in the right direction – flipping our corporate govern-ment from our masters to our servants – no one knows how far it will go, whether it will retain its burgeoning energy and what the backlash will be from the ruling power structures.

Back in October 2008, when Wall Street was crashing on US investors, workers and taxpa-yers -in that order – our inde-pendent presidential campaign held a major rally at Wall Street. Addressing the New York Stock Exchange, with our participa-tors and their signs, I proposed specific recommendations for law enforcement, a financial transaction tax and accounta-bility for those handling “other peoples’ money”, Few listened.

Now the powers-that-be are starting to listen, because ins-tead of a one day event, they see day-after-day aroused citizens rallying back home and before the perpetrators of the preda-tory abuses.

When the corporate and poli-tical bosses hear the rising roar from the people, they start swea-ting. Now is time to turn up the heat without pausing.

Visit http://occupywallst.org/ for more information on how to join the movement.